MODELING THE WETTABILITY ALTERATION TENDENCIES OF BIOPRODUCTS DURING MICROBIAL ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY

Nmegbu C.G.J, Pepple D.D

Abstract: About 50-60% of the world’s reservoirs are carbonate, and quite a significant number of them are naturally fractured and recoveries from these zones are significantly low. Some common EOR methods for production from these zones include thermal recovery, chemical processes (surfactant injection, caustic flooding etc.), miscible displacement etc. this study involves the modification of a generic model to facilitate the recovery of oil by the production of these biosurfactants and biogases. Since it is well established that increasing biosurfactant concentration causes a decreasing interfacial tension, it can be concluded that IFT decreases with time. a correlation of which is verified in this study. Models depicting the direct and indirect impacts of bioproducts on the wettability of a reservoir are presented. A drop in the IFT results in an instantaneous change in the wettability properties from either oil-wet or mixed wet condition to water wet.

Keywords: Biosurfactants, Imbibition, Water-wet, Wettability

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0304167